What are the main results of the study?

There are three. First, umpires are more likely to call strikes for pitchers who share their race/ethnicity. The second result is an extension of the first: Umpires are more likely to express a preference for their own race/ethnicity only when their behavior is less closely scrutinized: 1) in parks where QuesTec (a computerized system set up to monitor and review an umpire's ball and strike calls) is not installed, 2) in poorly attended games, and 3) on pitches where the umpire's call cannot determine the outcome of the at-bat. Finally, game outcomes are influenced by the race/ethnicity match between starting pitchers and home-plate umpires. Home teams are more (less) likely to win a game when their starting pitcher and home plate umpire have the same (a different) race/ethnicity.
Science Daily reports on the paper here. Dan Hamermesh sent me the paper just before I went on vacation. I haven't read the paper carefully, but it appears to be well done. The finding that "favoring your own type" varies with monitoring and game conditions -- i.e. that discrimination is essentially price-sensitive (umps do it when it is cheap) -- is especially interesting.

link to the PDF:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Hamermesh/Baseball4Authors.pdf

Considering that the conclusion was only 1 pitch per game was influenced, I can't see how the study has any relevance whatsoever. Instead, it seems to be an attempt to gain publicity with a provocative conclusion.

Cabrera CF
Betemit 2B
Jeter SS
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui LF
Posada DH
Phillips 1B
Duncan RF
Molina C

Let's hope Jeter's over whatever was ailing him.

What, is Randy Johnson pitching today?

Especially Cano--shouldn't he be in the lineup on principle?

wait...

Bedard vs. Left:
122 ab, .230 .329 .385 .714

vs. Right:

472 ab, .208 .261 .335 .596

Ric 3 , no, there is no false correlation. The study controls for race of ump and race of player.

Cliff 4 , the sample size is not small. There were over 2 million pitches examined. The black-ump-black-player n is a lot smaller, and that one correlation might not be very significant, but the correlation for white umps is very significant.

William 7 , the research is published on the web; there is no margin of error given because that is not an appropriate statistic for this kind of study – instead you should look at the standard error of the variables. They also report which results are statistically significant.
The 1% difference is unlikely (in the extreme) to make any difference in a particular game, but that's not the point. The authors are not especially interested in baseball. They're interested in discrimination more generally and used baseball because of the fantastic statistics. Baseball is their 'laboratory'.

I thought it was fascinating, myself.

vs. R: .208/.262/.335 3.07 ERA
vs. L: .230/.331/.385 3.27 ERA

Perhaps he has built up such a reputation as a lefty killer that opponents are only letting their best lefties hit against him. Note that the lefty sample size is quite small (143 PA).

http://tinyurl.com/35sd5w

21 I posted this on another thread: Isn't that the dude who compared Hughes in a less-than-favorable way to Jaret Wright the day before Hughes shut down TEX?

Also, his stuff on Hughes' velocity drop seems to coincide with what's happening.

As for Abreu, it's got to be the "Tough lefties get him slumping" theory.

He's been a little off for the last 2 days (Ofer), he's facing a tough left-hander, and this year his daytime OPS is .702 compared to .934 at night.

Today was a good day to give him a day off, even if Betemit isn't the same hitter vs LHP.

vsRH: .208/.262/.335
vsLH: .191/.310/.336

There is still a little higher OPS but it's a lot more telling since Crawford has done so much damage against Bedard. Crawford is 7 for 12 with 2 doubles, a triple and a homer against him this year.

So his splits are highly misleading when you consider one player has done all of the damage.

I'm not a big Torre defender, but maybe, just maybe him and the coaches look at those things.

Many (most?) pitching coaches are overrated.

In the 2 previous matchups with Bedard the Yank lefties went 4/12 w/ 1 bb -- 2 hits by Damon (April), and then 1 for 14 w/ 1 bb recently in Baltimore.

Then there's this: a general-interest baseball site just posted a detailed article comparing two of the top pitching prospects in baseball, and both of them are on the Yankees' 25-man roster. Holy cow!

Melky: .300/.352/.449
Markakis: .297/.361/.452

But can Markakis play CF?

Whoa, that was quick.

(Buchholz over Phil? Let's see him throw well in the majors.)

40 He recently opened that up again, it's in one of the Bibles I believe.

30 Yeah, it probably is because of something that Guidry and co. told him. But why would that stop somewannabe@yahoo.com from analyzing it?

Beyond that though, he has to have some kind of injury or weight problem or something. It just makes no sense to leave him in AAA all year.

Phil, let it end here, we really can't afford you getting chucked.

The Orioles are reportedly displeased that Miguel Tejada and Nick Markakis got hit last night, so don't be surprised if a Yankee gets drilled today.

Hmm...

But we do know what the direction is, unless I misunderstand you. The pitch is more likely called a strike when the ump's race matches the pitcher's race. And the result is significant at the 1% level. So, it is very strong evidence of discriminatory bias.

54 I don't follow.
It's true that we don't know whether, say, white umps call every pitch exactly right while black umps and hispanic ones are biased toward pitchers of their own race, or instead hispanic ones get every pitch right and white umps are biased, or the bias is divided evenly among the races.
But we do know that the bias is in favor of the umps' own race.

Wow.

What I find most impressive about Joba's mechanics is his stride. He gets way out there when he lands and that provides some nice power.

Our society is deeply structurally racist and those racist structures probably lead to racist attitudes, even (perhaps especially?) among people who are sensitive against the charge of racism.

Par for the course, if you ask me.

Take it back.

Nice throw by Molina.

For starters, there are so many more white umpires, that it could be that they are get the calls right and one member of the much smaller minority sample is throwing off the data. Also, maybe white umpires just have more experience, so they get more calls correct. Or, maybe more white pitchers have experience, so they are less likely to be squeezed by umpires who are familiar with them. Most of whom happen to be white.

My overall point is the conclusion is so insignificant, that it wouldn't have even seen the light of day if it didn't tie race into baseball.

Right by Mora.

Play-by-play would be awesome. :)

Having the YES Network on Cox cable here in Vegas would be awesome.

Warning Track Andy lined out to the uh, warning track in right.

Duncan fanned on three breaking balls, and looked thoroughly overmatched doing it.

84 not being squeezed but only just missing.

The judgment one comes to about that has no bearing on whether something's happening or not.

Did the study conclude with any sort of prescription or judgment?

I'd pay a lot of money right now for three Coney Dogs with everything and a side of Chili cheese fries right now. Yummm.

There's a great rivalry between American Coney Island and National Coney Island in downtown Detroit. Two storefronts right next door to one another, both serving the very same thing. I was partial to American, as I recall, because they sold beer.

Great place to go after a Tiger game.

Decent overview here:

http://tinyurl.com/3c5qw8

That's another matter.

If the goal is to avoid bias, period, then sure, use QuesTec.

But I am naturally wary of turning to technology in an attempt to effect social fairness, on the field or off.

I don't know, I have a lot of ambivalence about this.

I think its caught up now (two outs, Patterson singled), but sheesh.

If "maybe" 1 close pitch every three games is being subconciously impacted by race, well, I don't think that points to a problem, nor is it evidence of systemtic racism on our society. Then, when you factor in that so many other variables unaccounted for may further lessen that percentage, the "significance" decreases even further.

That umpires' calls are subjective?

We knew that.

That one element of the subjectivity is racism?

Big surprise.

I don't know, maybe I'm being obtuse, but I'm just not getting why this study is so provocative or even useful.

His route was funny.

Just to make it clear: the point of the study isn't to "indict baseball" or anything like that. It's to find out about bias, and how it can be corrected or controlled by oversight.

Argh. Okay, Phil, let's see what you're made of now.

123 Amen.

According to Gameday Markakis is up.

OK, 3 runs coming up.

18.6 pitches an inning. Toooo many.

One run in.

Nothing wrong with that, but again, it sounds fairly pedestrian.

Was the point to study bias in general, by looking specifically at racial bias, or was the point to study racial bias, in an attempt to answer the implicit question: Are umpires racist?

Just not sure about why the researcher felt this particular study would be of value in the first place or what body of research or conversation s/he was responding to or engaging with.

What is "bias?"

To me, it's relative, so sure, 1 in 700 pitches can point to bias. The question isn't whether it represents bias, but the question is whether that bias is consequential. I.e., is urgent redress merited or not?

That's not a question that can be answered statistically.

It's an ethical judgment.

Melky just walked...

1-2.

Should have swung, but it was a good pitch.

0-2.

1-2.

2-2.

Same pitch that got Betamit.

Three outs.

Still being no-hit. Yahoo.

Love,

Me.

Same pitch he took in 2002 against Percival in that epic ab.

That'd be an agreement.

Duh.

FUCK this Umpire that was INSIDE more than I thought!

He's looking good.

Alex makes the grab in foul ground.

Pitch was high, probably ball four.

Yes, of course I think it indicates bias. Not with certainty, but you don't get certainty in science.

I don't have any idea what you mean by "normalized" here.

First pitch breaking ball over the dish, like the last one, but Mora's ready.

He hammers it into left for a hit.

I wonder what would be the result if the authors defined three random player/umpire groups and reported the results. I wouldn't be surprised if they reached a similar conclusion.

Breaking ball in the dirt, gets away from Molina.

Second and third, one out.

2-2.

So, how do all the wussies on the Yankees fare?

Beautiful fastball on the outside corner freezes Bacco.

Nice, nice pitch.

Oh, actually, it wasn't on the corner, it was over the dish.

Lots of movement, though.

1-0.

1-1.

1-2.

What a fiasco!

Hughs went to the well once too often with that breaking ball.

Smacked hard to Phillips, who fields, but Hughes hesitates going to cover first.

The flip gets away from Hughes, both runners score.

Argh.

No way we're going to touch Bedard today. 3 runs should be more than enough.

So, another series where we lose 2 out of 3 to Ballamore. Are we, what, 3-8 against Baltimore this season? Seems like 2 years ago when we went 8-11 against the Rays.

I thought it was a hit off the bat, but Phillips made a nice play to stop it going through.

They almost had him.

"I just find it hard to believe that if bias was really at work, it would only emerge in 1 out of every 700 pitches."

That doesn't make sense to me. Bias comes in all kinds of degrees. Why do you think it is impossible for there to be small biases?

"I wonder what would be the result if the authors defined three random player/umpire groups and reported the results. I wouldn't be surprised if they reached a similar conclusion."

The chance of that happening would be less than .01. That's what the significance test tells us.

But at least Tina is showing a little cleavage.

A terrible, terrible swing by Hideki.

A big breaking ball tailing away and he just kind of flailed at it for a weak grounder back to the pitcher.

Alex holds at second, Jorgie up.

Remember the 6-2 game in Cleveland back in April?

Matsui took strike one he could have driven and now Jorgie.

0-2 to Jorgie who lines one foul the other way.

Nice wood.

Close.

Jorgie's way, way out in front of the breaking ball.

Another weak-ass tapper back to the pitcher.

Two away, Alex moves to third.

alert oliver stone.

The Yanks are too weak in the bottom of the order today to make Bedard sweat. Unless Joe brings a couple lefties in this will be a cakewalk for Bedard.

A-Rod to third with two out. Crucial RBI opportunity here for Phillips who fouls off strike one...

and strike two...

I can't believe some of you are Yankee Fans.

What exactly do you expect? 8 shutout innings every time? Go look up Rocket's first year. His ERA was over 4 IIRC.

Drive this run in.

Basehit up the middle.

Stay back.

284 Part of the problem is that the Yankees dug such a big hole they have no margin for error. Also, after forfeiting last night's game, it isn't easy to just "allow them to lose" another game.

That is 100% wrong. That is NOT what statistical significance is all about. A flawed study that fails to isolate the variable that's ostensibly in question is flawed, regardless of the output of the significance calculations. There is no formula to evaluate methodology when the subjects & study are as nebulous as human relations. Saying a 1 in 700 effect is a slam dunk case for racism on a non-peer reviewed, first iteration study, is quite bold.

Phillips jammed a little bit, fists it weakly to second.

Thirteen scorless innings.

God, it's only 3-0.

We have to win this baseball game.

287 Ah, as long as it's not the Office of Pesticide Programs.

Gotta love acronymfinder.com

I still want three coney dogs though. The Detroit kind.

I mean, all studies ignore a lot of variables, so whether that's really a criticism depends on which ones you mean.

Okay, come on, Phil, this is a big run you're going to prevent now. Don't worry too much about the runner...

It exists, of course, but how do you honestly control for such a thing?

I don't know, I think the problem is it's not something that lends itself to "scientific" investigation, presuming you believe social science to be science in the first place.

I'm just not so sure why "racial bias" needs to be quantified.

It exists and people experience it all the time, but is it really necessary to pick it apart and declare: "Aha!"?

Studies like this run a great risk of being conducted for all sorts of polemical reasons, which is why I'm not sure what the point is.

Oh, good God, Derek, wtf was that?

The fucking wheels are coming off again!

That's pretty much the point I'm trying to make in 292 . There are lots of variables in life, and since that's what this study is trying to take a look at, one has to be really careful and generally look for overwhelming evidence - not 1 in 700.

If you think the study is 'flawed' because it 'fails to isolate the variable it studies', you're free to give some kind of argument for that, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with what I said about statistical significance.

Joe and Donahue check him out...

That's the problem.

It's one thing to get beat, it's another to start getting sloppy.

He's hitting the ball hard.

I don't like this.

lovely job y'all have been doing here without me ...

Millar's not fooled by it.

0-2.

Maybe it's his anniversary?

Who the hell do they lose to? West coast teams, perhaps?

Because against the Yankees & the Sox, they always look like they're better than 3rd or 4th place.

1-2 on Millar.

Hughes' pitch is a breaking ball high.

2-2, infield in.

Breaking ball popped up, Duncan catches, throws, out at the plate!!!

(Fly out, thrown out at home, in case anyone still needs the play by play.)

Shell-ey! Shell-ey! Nice throw!

SHELLEY DUNCAN JUST THREW OUT COREY PATTERSON!?!

I thought he had NO chance.

Bad throw, but Molina alertly went and got it a couple steps up the line.

Nice play.

And now a Sac Fly... OH SHIT, GOT HIM!!! Gunned Down! Someone's been watching Melky!

Make up for this Bad News Bears nonsense a little bit.

run for your lives, yankees, fear the forearm bash!!!

Time to get some runs.

Let's hope this turns things around.

It's time to start playing baseball, Team!

Let's go *YANK*ees!

Even though he hasn't been real sharp, I do like seeing him out there, I do.

[/cliched baseball announcer voice]

Wrapped hard through the left side for Shelley!

Come on, Team, let's do it!

Also, if white umpires and white pitchers both have more experience, the former may be used to how the latter pitches, leading them to call more pitches strikes.

Molina reminds me of Enrique Wilson in the batter's box.

Fuck, out at second.

No, I disagree.

They botched that.

He never had control of the ball.

My checkbook-minded Yankee fan mentality says to do whatever it takes & get this guy, but then there's Jaret Wright, a former Mazzone disciple who looked amazing the year before we signed him.

This is painful.

he'd better watch it ... teams are gonna start looking for payback

though maybe a brawl today could work to our advantage ... i just know Krazy's been saving up a good season's worth of ass-kicking rage, getting him suspended would be worth it ...

Bedard is a free agent after '09. Theres a nice fluff piece on him in today's NY Times.

Hideous call by Bruce Froemming there. Not only was Cabrera not on the bag, he never had the ball. Other than that, Duncan was out.

:)

This is the kind of game we must win.

Come on, Team, step it up!

"The Yankees also have a payroll that exceeds the GDP of Chad. The Yankees have seventeen All-Stars at every position, and several more serving as groundskeepers just for the fuck of it. The Yankees once battled the X-Men to a standstill, even with the Phoenix fighting for the mutant side.* Comparing the Tribe to the Yankees, I think, isn't going to be much of a consolation to Wilmington Kurt."

IIRC, A-rod kicked Wolverine's ass. Jeter, however, took Storm out to dinner.

By the way, I believe there's some evidence that umpires call more strikes late in games, especially in blow-outs. Not more balls. Also, your second possible confounding variable I would call an explanation of bias, rather than a substitute for bias.

that said, it is only a 3 run lead.

what ever happened to the "don't stop believing" crowd?

Nice seven pitch ownage by Sean Henn.

Hughes at home (3 games): 14 20 13 12 5 14

Hughes on the road (2 games): 12.1 4 1 1 4 12

Maybe the kid's gotta work out his nerves.

3 runs is nothing, this is the same team that bounced back with 8 vs. the Sox.

Also, whether a substitute or an explanation, my point is I don't accept the conclusion that racism impacts MLB umpiring.

Santana
Wang
Hughes
Chamberlain
Bedard

::shudder:: ;-)

If the score were 8-5, I'd say three runs is nothing, but we've not scored in almost 15 innings.

That's significant.

Making proclaimations when we are tied for the WC AND ahead of both Detroit and Cleveland, with 50 games to go is kinda silly, isn't it?

$100m worth of Dice-K gave up 5 ERs today, while the Sox have pounded the shit out of 2 hits, against that awesome SP of Tampa Bay. Are you digging a grave for them next to ours?

Good hitting.

Follow Alex's lead, Hideki!

Up the middle.

HA! Today ARod with as many hits as the ENTIRE RED SOX TEAM!

Anybody know Bedard's pitch count?

""To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying.""

But my God!

He lost the ball!

What a break.

Terrible ab by Matsui, but Christ, let's make them pay!

I love Hideki, I'm not bashing him, but that was a really poor ab followed by really poor running.

That's the kind of stuff we can't have.

Come on, Jorgie.

Dead red, I'd say.

BUt just take it up the middle.

Jorgie's been swinging through fastballs right over the dish these past couple of days.

That was a very hittable pitch.

Damn it.

I'm so frustrated right now.

that hurt.

i admit it.

Fug.

finally able to watch (just saw Posada's strikeout)

Sterling said "Hughes is getting squeezed while Bedard is getting 2 inches off the plate."

Anyone know the truth?

How is it that Jorgie makes contact on that 2-0 (or was it 2-1?) fastball high, out of the zone, but then fails to strike the fastball right there, as if placed on a tee?

Really, I just don't get it. Not a rhetorical question.

Not to mention, he might have been looking for something else.

Or Bedard is just a great pitcher and he's really hard to hit.

Why are people so quick to discredit (in this case Posada) but not give credit (Bedard)?

Kidding, weeping.

Those answers sound tautological to me, though.

The real question was about the fact that he managed to make contact on a pitch that's much harder to make contact on, i.e., the high fastball while failing to strike the easier-to-hit fastball over the dish.

Just saying "It's hard to hit a baseball" doesn't account for the difference, at least not satisfactorily.

"Word is that the Yankees and Scott Boras have agreed on a deal that would pay the right-hander a minimum of $4.6 million and possibly as much as $13.8 million based on service time and whether he gives up basketball."

this dude better be related to Walter Johnson, because that is a shit ton of money.

That's a ball he's handled, but doesn't seem to be handling it as much lately.

I'm just observing that and trying to account for it.

I have no issues with Cano and Abreu getting the day off against an extremely tough lefty when both have questionable splits against lefties (and Abreu has spiraled into funks after facing tough lefties....though probably coincidental).

I also have zero problem with Posada DHing. Day game after night game...he could have been on the bench completely, but at least he is in the lineup.

The only issue I have is Betemit batting 2nd, but I got over it very quickly.

UPDATE, 3:37 p.m.: BRACKMAN SIGNS WITH YANKEES

Word is that the Yankees and Scott Boras have agreed on a deal that would pay the right-hander a minimum of $4.6 million and possibly as much as $13.8 million based on service time and whether he gives up basketball.

More on this as it becomes official later today.

~~~~~~

that seems a wee bit high for a guy who isn't rick porcello and who had makeup and injury concerns and non-dominant performance in college

then again ... in nardi i trust (assuming due diligence on the injury front)

Also 472

Meanwhile, that changeup is filthy.

The bottom line is this reeks of Torre getting a little cocky at the wrong time.

Of course there's luck, but there's also talent.

I guess you're right that I don't think luck was the determining factor there.

Maybe I'm dead wrong, but I think there's more to it than that. Striking a baseball isn't really comparable to rolling the dice.

Whether the baseball finds a hole is more comparable, I'd think, but striking the ball well, poorly, or not at all isn't a primarily a matter of luck, is it?

I think people are just at a point where they don't care what Torre does, it will always be wrong...even if it is right...or at least defendable.

I'm gonna go play badminton. If you miss me, just find something pointless to argue about furiously, and you'll think of me.

...either way, I'm still praying for a 9th inning comeback. That would totally NOT suck!!!

Sliding slows you down. You are allowed to sprint through first base.

Kartsens really isn't all that good, there's a reason he's named "scary flyball guy." The fact that there really wasn't an option to start in place of Clemens meant that he should've appealed the suspension, and let the Yanks set up the staff the way they should have or Torre has someone go on short rest.

Granted, there's another month in the season left, and yesterday's game may mean little, but at the same time, the Yanks need to win as many games as they can. Starting Kartsens puts them at a disadvantage.

33. cult of basebaal
Regarding Cano, Joe has been saying for the last couple of days that robbie was going to get today off. IIRC correctly, he's only had 1 day off since the ASB (or something like that) and joe is concerned about him wearing down ...

He's been a little off for the last 2 days (Ofer both), he's facing a tough left-hander, and this year his daytime OPS is .702 compared to .934 at night.

Today was a good day to give him a day off, even if Betemit isn't the same hitter vs LHP.

taking bets on which of the two teams actually makes up those three runs in the next two frames.

C'mon you huckleberries - you owe the Scooter a win, darnit. Shoot, you owe him one more championship - even if he's watching on the big HDTV in the sky.

I didn't say Karstens was good this year. I mean, he's been terrible. But he's been good before and, more importantly, there was nobody else.

The guy's a good pitcher but that pitch didn't seem particularly good. Perhaps it was set up well by the rest of the sequence so as to make it harder to hit.

I'm just asking.

494 I'm aware of that, rbj, but again, it's always that hard to hit a baseball and yet sometimes hitters do it anyway, so the generic difficulty of hitting a baseball alone can't be the explanation for why Jorgie missed that particular pitch, nor for why he seems to be missing that pitch with greater frequency of late.

That's all I'm saying.

I don't think it's just random or a function of the opposing pitchers, although the latter is plausible.

"it's always that hard to hit a baseball and yet sometimes hitters do it anyway"

Um, false. The best hitters do it 3/10 times.

Man, I've gone bold happy today.

Here's the bright side: real good performances by the BP

519 A lot of bloggers seem to think Jeter's hurt.

I love it, but it ain't gonna happen.

BTW, how in the world does Ortiz score all the way from first on a double? Someone please tell me to what magical corner of Fenway was that ball hit to?

I don't expect him to do it for every pitch; that's not my point.

It's a long season, players see lots of pitches that are probably good hitting pitches for them but they miss them or foul them off anyway. Without getting inside Jorge's head, neither you or I know why he missed that pitch. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. Don't worry why he missed that one particular pitch. Worry that all the Yankee hitters seem to be going into a funk at the same time.

But I have every reason to believe they'll still blow it next inning.

He should have been replaced on the roster a week ago, and had no business being on the mound last night. He had done nothing to earn that start.

That was a train wreck they should have seen coming a mile away. The Yanks should have gone through contortions to avoid having him pitch.

Maybe he's really not, and that's just my impression, but it is my impression.

Anyway, just to be clear, this isn't the biggest deal in the universe for me, I was merely responding to the ab as it happened.

I'm not arguing that Jorgie should be traded or that he's a bad hitter. I was just responding to the moment.

Which is usually when they encounter very good pitchers for some reason.

Most hitters in ML go into a funk against Bedard. I'm sure it takes some time to regain their balance once he's out of the game.

This team has the ability to win this right now. Too bad Chris Ray is gone!

Just going with the pitch.

All day.

Nice swing.

Come on, Hideki, nice and easy.

Oh, please God, let's do this.

Please God.

ATA BOYZ!!!

That K is not mystifying to me, fwiw.

High cheese.

It was all you guys!

:)

Walker now relieving...

how about no

I'd be inclined to go with Abreu, looking for a liner in the gaps, but tough call.

It also works out better for positioning, according to Kay.

I don't know, he could well slap one the other way.

I don't want to mess with his arm either, but I don't buy your argument as a solid reason against it...

That made my heart skip a beat.

That was ball four.

If that'd been a fastball, the game could have been tied up.

What a swing.

FUCK
!
21!@!!!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKDJKLKFJDAKL;DJFL;KFDSAJ;KLFDSAJDFSA
FDSAL
FDASLJKFDSA

OH MY GOD

I LOVE YOU SHELLEY

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Squeeze THIS, stinkin' Os!

80's pop, anybody?

FUCKING A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!1

YES!!!

And now I gotta drive home and walk the dog.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

We don't need no stinking fastballs.

let's end it hear, melkman!

Guys, I apologize for my stupid comment. I was think that rest would be nice if the Yanks were going to "lose anyway because of Bedard"...Obviously I overlooked the magic of Shelly Duncan...

Way to adjust, Mats.

who's warming out there?

1 run down, man on 2nd with no outs? I say it's pretty much over for TB.

Melk just missed that one.

New life, Melk.

Hit in the ball to deep right! And its a foul ball in the corner, off the end of the bat.

This is our game.

Wow.

A-rod for the win, no doubt about it.

(BTW, another ninth-inning hit for the MVP!)

Papi's on deck.

Very nice. Good stuff, Sliced.

This is a helluva start. I love Shelley Duncan. Now if only the Yanks can scratch out a win and Al Reyes can avoid shitting the bed two nights in a row....

Let's get this one!

1 to go, Reyes...

Strikeouts are fun, Mr, Rivera.

Please please please let Mo get out of the inning with no runs allowed. Please.

680 I hope not. It is about time for WWWMW (hat tip to RLYW).

Now I know we are at a point where he can do no right with a lot of you.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Don't forget Shelley's DP earlier today. What a cool kid.

FUG!

Yanks aren't done yet!

I still like our odds.

What a fucking nightmare.

I feel like crying.

When was the last time Rivera allowed 3 runs in an inning?

3 extra base hits?

Kind of have to pull him.

Nothing you can do about this. Shit.

There's some comfort.

Do not give up hope yet, friends. There's still the bottom part of an inning to be played in the Bronx.

go twins.

someone please bring the old Mo back. and by old, i mean Mo of previous dominance and not current old Mo in age... : ~

i'm bracing myself.

That was a strike.

Christ, not ten minutes ago I was euphoric and now I'm back to surly frustration.

Fucking baseball.

It's a pure second guess, but Chamberlain was clearly the better option today. Torre finally brings Rivera into a high leverage, non save situation and it's still the wrong move.

But I'd be lying if I told you I didn't have a pit in my stomach.

Is Mariano on the take?

As I say, fucking baseball.

I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE playing the Orioles.

773 Who do you pinch hit for?

God, I'm so mad.

But when we face one, not so much?

The guys at RLYW have it well chronicled - every August, something bad happens to Rivera for a short while.

But 784 !

Please stay.

It ain't over yet.

What an excruciating game.

If nothing else, Shelley just guaranteed himself plenty more playing time down the stretch. Miguel who?

On the minus side, fuck.

"Oh MO!"

I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

We got both sloppy fielding (by Derek) and stellar fielding (by Duncan).

No hitting all game and then a last-licks rally for the ages.

Good pitching from everyone and a fiasco by Mo.

What the fuck kind of backwards universe is this?

What a twisted game.

Later all. I wanna say that tomorrow will be better for sure, but it's the Tigers. Not even sure I'll even have the desire to tune in all weekend...

the yankees are being extra careful with him, not only with his rest, but also with his warmups

they've said he'll only start innings, which means his appearance is essentially planned in advance, which means he can take extra time to get good and loose, since he isn't used to the normal reliever's warm-up timeframe

also, i would be willing to bet that a warmup is going to count as an appearance to the yankees, so if joe warms him up, he's got to come in ('cause he's gonna be unavailable for the next day anyway)

i would say that given the constraints, there just wasn't enough time for joe to feel comfortable with joba's warmup period after the duncan homerun and he didn't want to warm him up before then if we didn't make the comeback (which was a damn longshot) if that meant he was going to lose him for tomorrow

sucks, but them's the rules of engagement with joba, at least for now

it's mo's inning anyway, at least when his evil doppleganger isn't pitching in his stead

sigh ... i don't heart bad mo

=(

"Mo, you huckleberry!"

It sure sucked to come home and watch Shelley's HR in the ninth, get all excited, and then get in the car to pick up my daughter, and check the score on my phone just five minutes later and see the O's had already gone up 6-3.

But if we were going to lose two in a row, at least we got rid of the deadwood (Karstens, Brower), and gave old uncreative Joe yet more reasons to trust the young guys. I love the hug Edwar and Shelley gave each other in the dugout after his home run...like a sign of brotherhood between two guys who have been working hard to make it to the majors, and contribute big like they did today.

A sign of better times ahead, no doubt. Let's hope this is just a blip (albeit a painful one), and that Mo gets past it quickly.

Actually, fairly often, it seems to me.

When he struggles, he seems to really struggle, especially this year.

If he struggles two days in a row, it's safe to assume he'll struggle the next day.

Not saying he shouldn't have been brought in, just that I'm not surprised at all.

Also, these games will happen. If the Yankees were still in the same position they were a month ago, these games could be disastrous. But right now, they have played themselves to a point where, along with a marshmallow September schedule, we're still in very good shape in spite of these last two games. The time to panic after every loss passed a couple weeks ago. We've afforded ourselves a little breathing room by getting right at the top of the wild card and within striking distance of Boston.

http://tinyurl.com/35ct23

without knowing the date, and it happened to be on August 10th two years ago. Uribe and Podsednik beating Mo...yikes.

Granted today's loss was a bit more deflating, but still, these things happen. I'll breathe easy as long as Mo's not hurt or something, and be glad we're still in the hunt.

It has to be encouraging that the youngsters are making strong contributions; look at it this way, when was the last time there was someone capable of possibly backing up Mo during a downturn like this? I think we'll get through this kind of thing better than you can imagine. Though I can't measure that in a cup, I think we all really feel it inside. I'm not very worried...

Next theory.

Also, you're completely missing the point. It's not that he sucks in August. It's that there are occasionally weeks where he descends from Olympus. If you really want to make an argument, prove that he's never had a stretch this rough before, even in his prime. I'll give you a hint: he has.

He's been watching too many Eric Gagne highlights?
;-)

Mo from 8/13/05 to 8/23/05: 5 G, 7 IP, 4 ER, 5.14 ERA. Finished the year 2nd in Cy Young voting.

Mo from 5/11/06 to 5/19/06: 5 G, 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 5.79 ERA. He finished the year with a 1.80 ERA.

Mo from 4/15/07 to 5/7/07: 8 G, 6.2 IP, 10 ER, 13.50 ERA. We all know how he did over the next three months.

Idiots always point to rough stretches and claim things like "He's getting old! He's DONE!" or "There must be some theory for Mo sucking!" No- he, like every other pitcher ever, goes through rough patches. He's just so good that people freak out when it happens.

1. It was definitely the right move to bring in Mo.

2. Even so, I just had one of those bad feelings. He's been giving up too many hits lately.

BTW, I would like to comment how impressed I am with the caliber of people here. Not a single person has posted something like, "Torre sucks! He should have done X Y or Z." Instead, most everyone recognized that he handled the game well (aside from the lineup construction), but it just didn't work out today. I'm willing to bet the commenters on a certain other blog were less rational.

843 & 844 thanks.

Obvioulsy, the liquor has taken hold.
We should keep in mind that this is 2 loses in a row, one with Karstens starting. 2 loses, not 5 or 6 or 10. Even so, we have played .700 baseball over the last 10 games.

And Cashman and the FO have REALLY come through, and constructed a younger, deeper more talented team then any of us expected.

And that moves at the MLB level take a little more time and thought then moves made in a Fantasy league.

And maybe a healthy Britton and a 'fixed' Bruney are still waiting their turn. I hate losing but I love this team.

Also, good to see Henn shut them out for a bit.

And Mo always has a couple of bad outings in April and a couple bad outings in August/September. This is so normal it is obscene.

What I wonder about Mo is where is the high fastball? Everything is thigh high and below. It doesn't matter who you are, if all your pitches are in the same location, major league hitters will paste the ones that get a lot of the plate. His reluctance to go out of the zone to get swinging strikes or back batters off, or even change thier eye level, is as much resposible for his problems this year as anything else. When you don't throw 98 MPH, you have to get the fastball up every so often. I know all pitcers change, but I don't have the same degree of confidence in Mo these days. Not because he has lost anything, but because he isn't throwing the right pitches.

The O's certainlty went to work on Posada today with it.

But the closest I come to drinking is root beer, next theory >;)

Which reminds me. It seems that every year there is one team (sometimes more) that shouldn't dominate us but does. Tampa Bay was that team a couple of years back. I take it as part of the process.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9q1ZMVvLA

Mo is disappointed in himself ;( :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sUbx_H2tm8M

(check out those comments...they make Pete's people look like Bill James)

Today's loss hurts, a lot. But we got beat. There were several positives today: A-Rod was 4-4 with a walk. Shelly hit that HR (maybe earning some starting time at 1B?) and Edwar was dominant. If we can manage to sneak Britton in for Villone or Farnsworth I'd say our BP is set for the stretch run. We remain tied for the lead in the WC and 5 back from Boston.

Hughes interview was solid.

I love me some Mo, but why can't he ever say they were bad pitches and he got hit? He said they were good pitches and they got hit, and "I didn't do my job," which is true and I feel for him when he goes through this. But for our sake, don't say they were good pitches. They were flat, thigh and belt high, and again there was no use of the high fastball when he had a favorable count. What happened to using that pitch in 0-2 and 1-2 counts? You don't have to say you're tired, even if you are, but don't tell fans to fight their own eyes.